MOHALI: A local court on Monday awarded three-year jail term to five members of the management of Guru Ram Das Education Society, which runs Chandigarh Group of Colleges at Landran here, for operating a sewage treatment plant (STP) on the college premises without an approval of the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB).

KOLKATA:The possibility of cobbling up a joint front of like-minded parties minus the Congress to challenge the ruling BJP-led alliance in next year’s General Election was on Monday discussed at a meeting held here between Telengana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee.

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Shubhadeep Choudhury

Tribune News Service

Kolkata, March 19

The possibility of cobbling up a joint front of like-minded parties minus the Congress to challenge the ruling BJP-led alliance in next year’s General Election was on Monday discussed at a meeting held here between Telengana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee.

The two had a meeting that lasted for around two hours. Later, talking to mediapersons, Rao said the meeting signified the “beginning” of a “non-Congress, non-BJP front”. Rao claimed the front would offer something to people that neither the Congress nor the BJP had been able to despite having long stints in the government. He claimed the agenda of the front would be quite different from what was being known to people all these years.

“It is not going to be a mere political front of some parties. It is going to be federal front of the people of India. We fully understand that there is a great deal of need in this country for a qualitative change. We need to liberate the country like the East Asian Tigers, like China, like so many other economic models,” Rao said.

“The kind of administration being offered alternatively by the Congress and the BJP had not really worked well for the country,” Rao said.

The TRS leader said so what if people were fed up with the BJP and voted for Congress. “There will be no chamatkar (miracle),” Rao said, adding that India badly needed a “chamatkar”.

On being asked if he envisaged a government of regional parties with outside support from the Congress, Rao answered that they envisaged nothing so commonplace.

Rao, however, added that the two of them (Rao and Mamata) would not be able to answer all the questions since there would be other stakeholders too in the front whose inputs would have to be taken on board. He hoped that everything would “become clear” in the next meeting of the proposed front, which would see participation from representatives of more parties.

When asked if the call for a federal front amounted to saying no to Rahul Gandhi, Mamata Banerjee snapped back, saying: “Please do not put words in my mouth. Rahul elucidated his views on Sunday. I am also entitled to express my views.”

On the issue of leadership of the front, Rao said there would be a collective leadership. However, he added that the leader would emerge as the situation would develop.

Banerjee, it may be noted, had a telephonic conversation with Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu on the subject on Sunday. She is also in touch with NCP leader Sharad Pawar and is expected to attend a meeting being held in this connection in Delhi next week.

RANCHI:A CBI court in Ranchi on Monday convicted former Bihar Chief Minister and RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, along with 18 others, in the fourth fodder scam case, while it acquitted another former Bihar CM, Jagannath Mishra, and 12 others.

NEW DELHI:Displaying “pragmatic politics”, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who is currently faced with over 30 criminal defamation cases in various courts of the country, has expressed regret to Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and Congress leader Kapil Sibal’s son Amit Sibal over his “defamatory” statements against them.

CHANDIGARH:A day after party chief Arvind Kejriwal sought to reach out to Punjab leaders over his apology to former Akali minister Bikram Majithia, Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann refused to resume the post of state party president.

CHANDIGARH:Faced with a severe financial crunch, the Punjab Cabinet, at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, on Monday cleared decks for state Cabinet members to pay their income tax, beginning March this year.

BENGALURU:In a decision fraught with political implications in poll-bound Karnataka, the state Cabinet today decided to recommend to the Centre grant of religious minority tag for the numerically strong Lingayat and Veerashaiva Lingayat community.

New Delhi: The CBI has filed a chargesheet against a former CMD, two ex-executive directors, an ex-DGM, an ex-CGM and an AGM of Canara Bank; Delhi-based Occasion Silver Private Limited and its two directors on allegations of cheating Canara Bank to the tune of Rs.68.38 crore.

SRINAGAR:Separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani on Monday resigned as the chairman of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, the party he founded over a decade ago, following fissures with his parent organisation Jamaat-e-Islami.

PSPCL has been suffering losses in the past two fiscal years and is expected to incur a loss this year, too. It must take bold steps to make electricity cheaper by enhancing its own generation in the coal and renewable energy sectors.

LUCKNOW: Throwing a spanner in the works of Chief Minister Yogi Aditynath-led BJP government's first anniversary celebrations, alliance partner and cabinet minister Om Prakash Rajbhar stayed away from the function, accusing the government of not being inclusive.

MOHALI: A local court on Monday awarded three-year jail term to five members of the management of Guru Ram Das Education Society, which runs Chandigarh Group of Colleges at Landran here, for operating a sewage treatment plant (STP) on the college premises without an approval of the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB).

CHANDIGARH: A fortnight after the “victim” in the rape case against Sucha Singh Langah backtracked, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday granted regular bail to the former Akali minister. Former MLA from Dera Baba Nanak segment in Gurdaspur district, Langah was booked on September 29, 2017, 11 days ahead of the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha bypoll that the ruling Congress party won against SAD’s ally BJP.

CHANDIGARH: The first day of the Budget session on Tuesday is likely to see action outside the Vidhan Sabha. With the SAD-BJP preparing to gherao the Assembly in protest against the government’s failure to waive the entire farm debt, they are unlikely to attend the House on day 1.

CHANDIGARH: The state Cabinet on Monday approved the draft of The Punjab Laws (Special Provisions for Regularisation of Unauthorised Colony) Bill, 2018. The Bill, which paves the way for the regularisation of over 7,000 illegal colonies in the state, will be presented in the House during the Budget session beginning on Tuesday.

CHANDIGARH: Less than two years after Haryana was directed to probe the siphoning off of funds in the name of non-existent four lakh students, the Special Investigating Team (SIT) has confirmed embezzlement.

JAMMU: Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Monday visited the Bhimber Gali area in Balakote sector to console the family, who lost five of its members in the cross-border shelling on Sunday. The Chief Minister handed over cheques amounting to Rs 25 lakh as ex gratia to the next of the kin of the deceased. Mehbooba also handed over cheques of Rs 3 lakh each for meeting the educational expenses of the two daughters of the family, who too were injured in the Sunday’s shelling incident.

DEHRADUN: The budget session of the Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly at Bhararisain (Gairsain) from Tuesday is expected to be stormy with the Opposition all set to corner the TS Rawat-led government on a slew of issues.

BEIJING:China’s tough-talking Foreign Minister Wang Yi was elevated today to the top diplomatic post of State Councillor, a move which could make him the new ‘Special Representative’ to handle the vexed boundary negotiations with India.

NEW DELHI:In a new twist to the auctioning of Binani Cement, Aditya Birla Group’s UltraTech Cement on Monday said it will buy the loan defaulter’s stressed assets by providing Rs 7,266 crore to its parent company.

COLOMBO:Dinesh Karthik is no Hrishikesh Kanitkar or Joginder Sharma but the wicketkeeper-batsman is not complaining about the “memories of a lifetime” that his last-ball six against Bangladesh has created.

NEW DELHI:The controversy surrounding Mohammed Shami took another turn on Monday as a Pakistani woman, Alishba, admitted meeting him in Dubai but refuted any monetary dealings with the India pacer as claimed by his wife.

CHANDIGARH:Three days ago, a Sri Lankan player pushed a Bangladesh player on the cricket field. It was just a shove, which may not matter much in a sport such as football, but in cricket it can have interesting ramifications, as was seen in the Tri-series final between India and Bangladesh.

Violent actions by students in India are raising alarming concerns about the mental well-being of our young population. The latest incident of shooting of a professor by a college student in Sonepat, coming close on the heels of the killing of a school principal by a Class XII student in Yamunagar, Haryana, last month, is quite perturbing.